She knew well enough what was happening to her-understood as well as I did how dreadful a destiny it was to be kneeling there in the bitter cold, on the slimy stones of a slum backyard, poking a stick up a foul drain-pipe.” For what I saw in her face was not the ignorant suffering of an animal.
It struck me then that we are mistaken when we say that ‘It isn’t the same for them as it would be for us,’ and that people bred in the slums can imagine nothing but the slums. She had a round pale face, the usual exhausted face of the slum girl who is twenty-five and looks forty, thanks to miscarriages and drudgery and it wore, for the second in which I saw it, the most desolate, hopeless expression I have ever-seen. She looked up as the train passed, and I was almost near enough to catch her eye. I had time to see everything about her-her sacking apron, her clumsy clogs, her arms reddened by the cold. At the back of one of the houses a young woman was kneeling on the stones, poking a stick up the leaden waste-pipe which ran from the sink inside and which I suppose was blocked. As we moved slowly through the outskirts of the town we passed row after row of little grey slum houses running at right angles to the embankment. This was March, but the weather had been horribly cold and everywhere there were mounds of blackened snow. He defends middle-class values whilst critiquing the failures of his own class, he advocates socialism whilst criticizing the socialist movement in England.“The train bore me away, through the monstrous scenery of slag-heaps, chimneys, piled scrap-iron, foul canals, paths of cindery mud criss-crossed by the prints of clogs.
In the second half of the book, Orwell examines his own political and social affiliations with an impressive ability to provoke and to question. Orwell describes dismal housing (including the lodging house where he stays), harsh working conditions and the devastating effects of unemployment.Īnd he also vividly describes the courage and dignity of the people he meets. The Road to Wigan Pier is an insightful and powerful account of lives lived in poverty and deprivation in a time of low wages and meagre government support. This edition is introduced by journalist and author Amelia Gentleman. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. The Road to Wigan Pier is a book in two parts: the first half is Orwell's description of working-class life in industrial communities of the north of England, the second examines his own political views.
0 kommentar(er)
